I've had my share of tasting menus but last night's six-course tasting menu at Eleven Madison Park was one of the best. With wonderful big windows looking onto the lush Madison Square Park, and an interior filled with flowers of all kinds, Eleven Madison Park's atmosphere got the evening off to a great start. The champagne that followed continued the thrill. Usually the tasting menu is a series of small plates, demonstrating the breadth and depth of the kitchen. At Eleven Madison Park, the breadth is more visible because they don't serve everyone the same dish. So each course was actually one thing for Jason and something different for me. Like a creamy pea flan with morels for one and asparagus with goat cheese for the other. Or skate in brown butter and cod. Arctic char and salmon. Each course we ate half of what was on the plate, then switched. So the six-course menu (which actually eight courses counting the tuna tartare amuse bouche and the chocolate soufflé) ended up providing eleven different things to eat.
And wowzers, but were they good! The pea flan was creamy and sweet and the most beautiful shade of green. The four fish courses were each distinct, each wonderful. And the only course that was the same for both of us was a côte du boeuf -- beef -- that was perhaps the best piece of meat I've ever eaten in my life. It was such a great experience to have so many textures, so many flavors -- and with the wine flight we had to accompany it, so many different wine tastes -- that I wonder why I'd ever want just a larger plate of one thing. I am fully subscribed to the Thomas Keller school of thought when it comes to portion size: three or four bites is a wonderful amount, enough that you experience it and yet not so much your tongue tires of the flavors. Each last bite leaves you wanting more. And yet the next course comes and it's another exiting adventure and new flavors. I can still nearly taste the pea flan on my tongue!
I definitely recommend Eleven Madison Park and hope to have the pleasure of dining again there someday.
Big article in New York about my favorite chef Thomas Keller and his new restaurant in New York City, The Perfectionist Gets Burned: How Thomas Keller survived the fire that almost took down Per Se.
"Just the other day, Thomas was so proud to show me how they use painter's tape in the kitchen," [The French Laundry Cookbook co-author Michael] Ruhlman says, visiting the Per Se kitchen one afternoon. Instead of tearing the tape from the roll to, say, label the plastic deli cups that hold the ingredients at each mise en place, every strip of tape at Per Se is cut with scissors, every edge perfectly straight. Immaculate. "Because it's all one thing to Thomas. You can't be lax in one area and perfect in another.
"It's not about the sweeping vision," Ruhlman adds. "It's about the minute vision. There are no big decisions. A great restaurant is the result of a thousand little decisions. A place like this is just composed of details. It's a pointillist picture. So every night after service, you'll see Thomas down on his knees, scrubbing out the cupboards."
Ah, that sounds like the Thomas Keller who charmed me as I read Michael Rhulman's wonderful book, The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection. I love the minute vision, the focus on the thousand little decisions, making sure each one is as right as it can be. Of course, such perfectionism is exhausting, but I think that's just how I'm made. And reading this makes me want to take back what I said the other day about not wanting to eat at Per Se. Maybe I do after all...
Today in the New York Times, Who Really Cooks Your Food?, an examination of the chefs behind the famous chefs at renowned high-end restaurants.
Alert restaurant customers already know that when a second in command is announced on a restaurant menu under the title of chef de cuisine or executive sous-chef, it signifies that the chef whose name is on the marquee might be a few blocks, or a few time zones, away.
Of course this isn't a surprise, though what was a surprise to me was the news that Eric Ziebold, Thomas Keller's chef de cuisine at the French Laundry, has resigned. According to this article, Keller is now back in California managing the relaunch of the French Laundry, which closed for renovations while his New York restaurant, Per Se, opened. Though Thomas Keller is my favorite chef, I haven't had much interest in eating at Per Se, simply because nothing could top my night at the French Laundry. And now that he's not even in the kitchen, I'm less inclined than ever.
